


Bright Lights

by TheCursor



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29751156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCursor/pseuds/TheCursor
Summary: Across the System, the Traveller is looking for New Guardians. Some of them are...unusual.
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

Cosmodrome- Earth

The Cosmodrome was one of twelve places on Earth where the Ghosts looked for future Guardians. Forty million well-preserved dead beings in stasis pods were scattered all over Old Russia and those bodies were excellent sources of new light born. The Ghost who some people nicknamed "Sloth" had spent six years searching each of those pods and makeshift tombs for his guardian with no luck. Each ghost was purpose build by the Traveller for one specific guardian and their only guidance was to just keep looking until they found the body of the person that was destined to be reborn. 

Ten years ago, when he first came online, Sloth had traveled to New York to begin its search in the Catacombs. That had been useless so now it was in Russia and then after the end of the year, it would perhaps try Old Chicago or Japan. Or...

It felt a tingle, or at least the closest thing that a mechanical being born from a cosmic machine god was capable of calling a "tingle". 

The body had been rotting in the woods ever since a human-made redjack robot shot him in the face. The being that had once been within that body was a minor captain who served the House of Dusk and made the mistake of camping in a spot that Lord Shaxx had chosen for a future Crucible. The robots had moved in, killed the Captain, and then left to set up the distance beacons that marked the boundaries of the guardian training missions. 

He lay in that spot, slowly decaying with the remains of his housemates, like a thousand Eliksni before him. The humans had reclaimed their land as they always did and the Fallen were squeezed between the forces of Man and the other occupants of the dead world some people called Earth. 

Sloth might've had some reservations or shock about the fact that his chosen guardian was a Fallen invader and not one of the three subspecies of humans who occupied the Last City. But before his higher functions could engage with the shock of finding that it was about to resurrect an alien being, the Traveller's programming took over. The process of resurrecting a guardian is automatic for a ghost. Their higher functions such as their personality and free will are suspended by the Traveller so that they can become an empty vessel for the Light. 

In this case, the initial scan of the body led to an immediate process that required no active participation by Sloth's personality drives. First, the ETM transmat ray repaired the body's damage, then an electrical current was passed into the brain to start the autonomic systems within the body. Finally, the Traveller's light filled the body with its essence and life returned to them being on the ground. In an instant, the creature understood all human languages and all Elksni dialects. He knew how to fight, not using the brutish skills that had been half learned while a dreg, but true combat. True, learned combat training. His lower arms that had been clipped as a dreg grew back and he became whole and grown and healthy. 

He gasped and Sloth hovered over his new charge like a loyal squire attending a sleeping knight, "Welcome back to the world, Hunter." 

Cabal Refugee ship: Asmodeum Itinerantur, Location Unknown 

Valkyrie had no idea why she was here, only that she felt a need to float into the open door of this Cabal ship and sit invisibly above the crowd to watch a young man's funeral. The Cabal was no known for their outpouring of grief but in this case, the people of the Asmodeum Itinerantur felt a reason to hold a grand funeral.

This was the first member of their race to die of starvation in years. 

After the fall of their capital planet and the shattering of their race by the Hive, they were desperate and dying. Despite his faults, Calus had been good enough at his imperial duties to ensure a robust system of resources to feed his planet while Ghaul's wars of conquest had ensured a steady supply of new territory to feed the hungering populace. Most Cabal had lived very well despite the endless wars raged on their behalf and it had been a very long time since they had known hunger. Now they were a broken race trapped in space and suddenly food was hard to find. 

This young Cabal was almost of soldiering age and might've been a great leader if he had lived. He gave most of his food to his sisters and friends, he refused to eat until his neighbors did, like a true hero of the Empire. But this generosity cost him his life as he died slowly and painfully from lack of food. The ship's Bracus passed word of the death to the Empress. She gave a proclamation to be read in their native tongue Ulurant and swore to her people that this was the first and last of their race to die of shame and hunger.

As she watched the gathered refugees, the Ghost named Valkyrie knew instinctively that this young Cabal was about to be reborn. She was far enough away from the body to know what had drawn her here but also to know the Traveller was about to fill her with terrible purpose. She had long known that the power of a Titan lived within her programming. She had always known that she would resurrect a powerful war master of the light, she had assumed this being would be Human or Awoken or Exo. 

But no...this would be her charge. She could feel it. The traditions of the Cabal meant they would leave the body unattended for one night before it was to be jettisoned into space. That would give Valkyrie more than enough time to do her sacred work. 

"Rise to war, Titan." Valkyrie whispered to herself. 

Artifact's Edge, Nessus 

Thud was known among his fellow ghosts as a moron. Just plain stupid. He communicated with other beings with curt, clipped sentences and he was often clumsy and flew in small crooked circles in search of his future guardian. When he first arrived in Artifact's Edge, he had flown into a tree and nearly cracked his outer housing. 

Unit 24425567 was supposed to be an emotionless, unfeeling member of the Vex Hive Mind but it was clear to its other subtypes that something was deficient in its programming structure. The Accumulative Mind had determined that the Hobgoblin's independence and erratic, curious behavior would be grounds for deletion if an improvement in productivity did not occur. 

When the two mechanical beings first saw one another, they both knewinstinctively what was about to happen. The process for awakening was surprisingly uneventful because the Vex had never truly been alive so that meant Thud could resurrect Unit 24425567 as if it was any other guardian. It scanned the Hobgoblin and the Hobgoblin's "body" responded by sustaining itself without the Vex mind's energy transmissions. The awakening severed the Hobgoblin's connection with its hive mind and suddenly the independent, self-aware subroutines that had been fighting against the Vex's suppression programs were free to think and feel on their own. 

"Alive?" Asked Thud and Unit 24425567 considered the answer very carefully. It was newly self-aware and within its first seconds of existence, the question of its status was very important. 

"Yes, Alive." Said Unit 24425567, "I am alive." 

"You are Hunter." Said Thud

"Yes," Said Unit 24425567 as it updated its designation to "the Hunter", "I am Hunter." 

Somewhere on the Moon

Anthra, Beloved of Savathun, held the strange machine creature between her claws as gently as she could. Within the Wizard's belly, her worm revolted against the sensations running through her but she still couldn't take her eyes off of the ghost's shell. She felt warm and for some reason...enjoyed it. 

"Speak more of this subject...creature," She heard the Thralls and Acolytes in her chamber grow angry and restless but she quieted them with a look, "Speak of this awakening." 

Sunbeam, perhaps the most innocent and warm-hearted ghost who had ever been formed, flexed the wings of his shell. "Yes, well, I'm supposed to resurrect you and remove that worm and make you a Warlock." 

Anthra tried to laugh, it also tried to crush the creature between her claws but suddenly could not. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she asked a question, "How would this be possible? I am not dead." 

"Well no, not technically, but you're also not alive so I think I can rebuild your exterior to more accurately reflect your original-" 

Anthra felt confused, unsure of what to say next, "Why?" 

Sunbeam tilted his single eye so he could examine the dark cell, the rotting biomass, and piles of bones that made up Anthra's endless, undead existance, "Are you happy?" 

Anthra stuttered, she had never been asked that question, "No." 

"Then why not?" 

Anthra considered this for a moment and then released the Ghost. Sunbeam floated away from her as he realized what she was about to do. He watched as she turned to her traitorous brood gathered around her...and killed them all, one by one. Soon she had shed the trappings of her old life in the hot fire of Solar energy. When it was done and all was quiet, Sunbeam began his work, "Seek knowledge, Warlock."


	2. Chapter 2

Europa- Phantom and Sloth 

He didn't have a name but most people who had met him, most Eliksni that is, called him Phantom. They considered him a hero, a strange force of nature who avenged the lives of abused Fallen civilians that were under the sway of bad Kells. This was a source of incredible amusement for Sloth, who found the idea of his Guardian being called a "Ghost" very hilarious. 

Today, they were sitting on Europa, waiting for the new shipment of slaves that was being transported by the House of Salvation to the Vex mines beneath the Rathmore Chaos. Eramis' servants still believed that any traitor Eliksni had to be killed or enslaved and every member of the so-called "Traitor Houses" was being rounded up across the system. All of Phantom's sources in the shore claimed that the House of Dusk had lost an entire ketch near Luna and that the survivors, including children, would arrive sometime in the next day. 

Until the slave ketch landed on Europa, Phantom and Sloth had nothing to do. They had started a fire in an old fuel drum and were sitting in a human-built research lab, just waiting and preparing. The rookie Guardian spent most of that time cleaning and recleaning his weapons while peppering Sloth with questions about the Tower, "So...do they have ether?" He said as he replaced the trigger mechanism on his shock rifle. 

"Probably," Sloth said, "They have ether everywhere." 

"Yeah but like, flavored ether?" Phantom said as he started checking the slide on his scorch cannon, then reloaded his shock pistol. 

"You mean like the stuff Spider sells?" 

"Yeah." 

"I dunno."

European Dead Zone- Thor and Valkyrie

The Cabal respect strength in battle and thus, when Valkyrie resurrected Thor for the third time, the warriors of Firebase Hades stopped what they were doing and laid down their arms. Human Guardians were freaks of nature to be hated but this...how could they fight this? How could they possibly kill a god?

The huge Cabal Guardian in his gleaming Centurion armor stood above them with his shield and sword, totally unaffected by the thousands of slugs that the former Red Legion soldiers had fired into his body. He spoke to them in a booming voice, "Hear me: I fight for the Traveller, not the Last City. I care little for the Vanguard and their lofty speeches, but if you make war against the Traveller, you are my enemy," He waited for one of them to speak against him, none of them dared. "Leave. Return to Empress Caiatal and tell her what you saw here today." 

None of them moved. 

"Why aren't you leaving, worms?" He snarled, "I gave you an order." 

A Psion, one of the Bracus' former officers, spoke up, "My lord, we...wish to follow you." 

The Moon- Hunter and Thud

Of all the places to crash, the face of Luna was the worst. The resupply ship was just supposed to make a quick run to the Dead Orbit fleet and back again, they hadn't expected to land on the most dangerous planetoid in the system! They were civilians, not guardians, at any point they could just...none of them wanted to think about it. Most of them had started waiting for death to come. 

Until "It" showed up. It came over the ridge, moving with the stiff, jerk-like movements that all members of its species seemed to have. When they first saw it, they screamed. It was pointing it's line rifle at them and seemed ready to shoot them all down. 

Instead, it holstered the weapon and pointed at their ship. "Fix?" It said. No one knew what to say, when the hell did the Vex learn to talk? 

"Fix." The Hobgoblin said again and then it reached out its hand and released a floating Ghost from its internal storage. 

"Hello," Said the Ghost, "I am Thud, I will fix."

Pluto- Anthra and Sunbeam

"And then the Nine spoke to the Traveller in the words of the Ancients." The Jovian read from the book again and the other hooded figures of the Jovian colony nodded in contemplation. Behind them, their visitor was listening and taking notes. 

Sunbeam rolled over on his side in boredom, "Isn't there a mission we could perform?" 

"We are on a mission now," Anthra said, "We are searching for the Nine." 

"We're talking.... to a Jovian... on a planet humanity never settled," Sunbeam said, "Shouldn't we join a Vanguard operation?" 

Anthra tapped the carapace on her insect like face, trying once again to get Sunbeam to remember what species she was, "I am neither human, nor do I have any loyalty to the Vanguard, I serve the Traveller and so I will seek knowledge for the Traveller, which is what I did for Savathun before my resurrection." 

"Yeah, about that, I still don't know how you have memories of your old life." 

"When you slew the worm, my mind became clear and it-" 

"Whatever, can't we go on a combat mission?" 

"Shush, I am listening."


End file.
